With wisdom-filled passages and personal stories, spiritual teacher and student Stefania Magidson, with Carmen Firan, guides the reader through a series of dialogues exploring themes ranging from immigration and philanthropy to spiritual psychology and self-realization. Magidson's unique journey encapsulates authenticity, wisdom and compassion pursuits as she boundlessly explores the depths of spirituality.
"I invite the reader to join me on a journey of exploration and rediscovery of that inner place that holds the lens of mystery through which life filters, if we allow it,” says Magidson. "I invite him to find that magic wand that transforms inner worlds into realities whose potential is only temporarily dormant.”
Proceeds for Searching for the White Magician go to Magidson's Blue Heron Foundation, benefitting Romanian and Moldovan orphaned and abandoned youth. The organization was founded out of the conviction that we must do all we can to uplift our fellow human beings who cannot yet fend for themselves. Blue Heron's mission is to provide such opportunities as scholarships and mentorships, offer support for youth intervention for a population vulnerable to human trafficking, and to address the intellectual, social and emotional well-being of their students so that they may become self-actualized, self-sufficient, productive adults.
I had a chance to interview her to learn more.
Why did you decide to write this book?
Initially, I agreed to novelist Carmen Firan’s invitation to do an interview for a literary magazine published in Romania. That was in 2012. She was particularly interested in the Foundation I was running, Blue Heron Foundation, and the fact that in 1993 I had received a master’s degree in applied spiritual psychology, a field I never stopped exploring. Except that, as she put it, my “unconventional answers slipped toward unexpected and rich territory” that made it impossible to fit in just one interview.
As I look back, I realize that Carmen was the one who got me started, but once I engaged in the dance of our dialogue, I realized how much of a hunger there was out there for people to learn, ponder and perhaps even incorporate in their lives the many notions addressed in the book. I became more cognizant that in this ever-changing, fast-paced world we need points of reference and skills to keep us grounded into what is real, authentic and meaningful in our lives. The world of the ego, the world of the senses, has a strong hold on us and it could be bewildering if one doesn’t know how to go inside and create a sanctuary from which to filter what is coming at us and build their lives.
And so, the one article became four, and then, because of all the comments, questions and interest, the 4 became 13, published over a 13 month period. At that point Carmen said “Stefania, we now have a book” a book published in Romania in 2012 and sold out in two editions. A few years later, New Meridian Arts, a New York based publishing house that “gives voice to foreign writers of talent and scope,” asked me to translate the book and in November of 2017 they published it.
Can you explain the phrase "searching for the white magician?"
The White Magician is the Higher Self inside of us, the part that is in touch with the rules of the intangible universe, the part that has a sense of our destiny and how to go about manifesting our highest potential. Of course it’s a metaphor, representing the ability to create with that symbolic wand the dreams and projects we’ve come to manifest in our lifetime. I added the word “white” because I only know how to work with the light, I’ve never been involved in any other type of approaches and have always taken into account the highest good of all concerned. And I used “searching” because this process is never complete, we are always polishing and getting more aligned with our Higher Self, we are always probing and delving deeper into our contemplation of what is and what is meaningful in our lives and what is the highest path at a given point. And so it’s always work in progress... A wise man said that all statements that are about spirituality are lies, lies because they are inexactitudes and we can only get close to what we want to define or describe, but the absolute truth is impossible to relate through words. And so the verb is in the present participle tense because it conjures an ongoing process.
What is spiritual psychology and how can an understanding of spiritual psychology help us?
In traditional -or mainstream- psychology, this field concerns itself only with the scientific study of our behaviors and thinking processes. What I believe should make all of us stop and ponder is: why is the very part that is the root of the word, mainly “psyche”, -which means “spirit” or “soul”- why is it all together ignored in the study of this engrossing field? So, explained in very simple terms, the study of spiritual psychology takes into consideration the exploration of our spirit, our soul. Beyond that, the study of spiritual psychology is approached as more than just a science, more than just quantitative data and statistics and takes into account another -and very crucial- element, namely the experiential nature of this field because theories and approaches are put into practice and learning experientially is a must. Spiritual psychology also takes into account the premise that we’ve all experienced more than what we’ve known through our five senses of touch, smell, sight, taste and hearing. We’ve all experienced unexplained serendipities, we’ve all dreamt at night, we’ve all had premonitions, we’ve all had the ability to create through our visions or to transform paradigms by reframing our view of reality. None of these have anything to do with our five senses, yet they exist and they merit our attention.
Why did you decide to create the Blue Heron Foundation?
My life has had a dramatic trajectory. From a safe but relatively narrow life in communist Romania, in the hopes of a life with more opportunities, we applied to immigrate -legally- to the United States. The communist government confiscated our home and our citizenship and we left with four suitcases and $500 exchanged on the black market. That was 1983. The first 10 years in America were lessons in humility, starting from zero and having to take the most menial jobs in order to build our lives again through hard work and education.
In 2002, when I was -finally- on a very stable financial and social platform, I did not hesitate to look back, to the underprivileged Romanian kids I had left behind, and extend a hand. So I started the foundation both because I tasted how bitter it is it to be at the very bottom level of a society’s pyramid and also because I realized how crucial the college years can be in carving one’s path in life...
The main program we’ve implemented over the years has offered college scholarships to Romanian and Moldovan abandoned youth. It covers their college tuition -and other courses such as English or driving courses-, provides them with a mentor and invites them on yearly summer camps. It has been a real honor to witness inspiring transformations in the lives of these young men and women; in spite of an incredibly perilous path, they have forged a solid professional path for themselves, curbing the cycle of poverty and abandonment.
Years later, I found out that one of the most profound ways in which we can cultivate a spiritual practice, is through a service project that speaks to us deeply. And so, I encourage all those who have sometimes felt the call in their hearts, to not hesitate to do it. Being of service is one of the highest callings of our lifetime.
Stefania Magidson was born in Romania and in 1983 immigrated with her family to the United States. She received a BS in Health Education and a Master's in Applied Spiritual Psychology. In 2002 she founded Blue Heron Foundation, one of the largest non-profit organizations in the Romanian diaspora, focusing on improving the quality of life of Romanian and Moldovan orphaned youth by providing them greater access to life's opportunities through merit based college scholarships in Romania. To date, the organization has raised over $2,000,000, has awarded over 300 college scholarships, and has touched the lives of over 2,900 kids.
Stefania is a supporter of the UCLA Graduate School of Education, The Everychild Foundation and the Making Waves Romanian Film Festival; she serves on the Board of Advisors of the Wende Museum, is the Chair of the Romanian Film Committee of the South-East European Film Festival, member of the advisory board of the Roma People's Project at the Hayman Center for Humanities at Columbia University and Co-Chair of the Parents' Council at Tisch School of the Arts. She is the author of the book Searching for the White Magician; a series of dialogues where she explores themes ranging from immigration and philanthropy to spiritual psychology and self-realization. Stefania lives in Los Angeles with her husband and their two sons.
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